Let your team guide you to be effective at work

Fully engaged workforce is one of the dreams senior leaders hope to see in reality. On an average they find that seven out of ten employees are not fully engaged in the workplace. Under half do what is expected of them but feel undervalued and are unwilling or unable to put in any extra effort. When business value creation is your job, employee engagement becomes the most powerful lever.

Most employees know what is expected of them, but the opportunity to grow and develop new skills and try new things drives engagement. People want to feel they belong to a community that shares their values. When the values of the organisation and the employee align, and when employees see organisational behaviours that reflect those values, they are engaged.

Take a quick look at the value system you are practicing. You might find some valuable tips to improve engagement. If feedback is a tool you are using to build and reinforce a participatory culture, check how open you are to receive unsolicited feedback from your team. They watch you everyday through your words and action. Also, they exchange notes amongst themselves. Being closer to the craft they are building, they know the possible impact of mis-direction and course correction options. When employees feel that their managers add little or no value to their work and are not open for feedback, they disengage slowly and steadily. If you are on a big-initiative, new business or at the beginning of a new organisation structure implementation, you will be busy and have all chances of missing the right, timely tips from your fellows. Catch their valuable insights and build on to make your journey remarkable.

If you just inherited a new team or turning-around a tough project, consider setting-up a grey-suggestion-box on your desk. Let your team drop their feedback into it routinely, whenever they feel so. Let it be anonymous. Take note, review and take action. When they see how seriously you take what comes in your way and deal-with gracefully, they feel part of making it work for you. They get firmly engaged at work.

Letting your team guide you to be effective at work is a powerful lever, you should incorporate gracefully.